Paris, October 4, 2021 - The COVID crisis has shown us that to meet the major challenges facing the world, all talents must be mobilized. To help promote the scientific excellence of women, which remains too little recognized, the Foundation L'Oréal, together with the Académie des Sciences and the French National Commission for UNESCO, is awarding the Prix Jeunes Talents Pour les Femmes et la Science France 2021 to 35 brilliant young female researchers.
Women are still under-represented in scientific research: today they account for just 33% of researchers worldwide, and 28% in France.[1] In Europe, 86%[2] of senior academic positions in science are held by men. And less than 4% of Nobel Prizes in science have been awarded to women.
This gap is widening all the more with the COVID-19 crisis. "The year we've just been through has put us to the test, but has also revealed an immense potential for resilience and rebound on the part of women, particularly within the healthcare professions, recalls Alexandra Palt, Executive Director of the L'Oréal Foundation. Women's perspectives and expertise are absolutely necessary to build a resilient, sustainable and inclusive world. Women must be given their rightful place in research, as gender bias limits the scope and impact of future discoveries."
For the 15thannual edition of the Prix Jeunes Talents France 2021, the L'Oréal Foundation and its partners, the French Academy of Sciences and the French National Commission for UNESCO, reaffirm their commitment to working alongside women scientists, to make them visible, support them and promote them within research.
This year, 21 female doctoral candidates and 14 female post-docs were selected in France from 740 applications by a jury of excellence made up of 28 researchers from the Académie des sciences.
These promising scientists received an endowment (€15,000 for doctoral students, €20,000 for post-docs), which will help them to continue their research work. They have also benefited from leadership training (management, negotiation, public speaking, etc.) aimed at giving them additional resources to better tackle the glass ceiling that remains a reality in the research world.
Coming from mainland France and overseas, and from a wide variety of research fields (research in genetics and ecology, treatments for female infertility, studies of viruses and chronic diseases, astronomy, cybersecurity, etc.), these young female researchers are numerous in their desire to share and pass on their passion for science, in order to inspire the scientists of tomorrow. "It's important to have a supportive ecosystem of other women in order to gain the confidence to achieve your career goals , for example, says Dorien Maas, a post-doc in psychiatry and neuroscience. Similarly, biologist Jessika Consuegra asserts that "anyone, regardless of income, origin or gender, must be able to find their place in science."
To foster the emergence of a new generation of excellent female researchers, the L'Oréal Foundation, alongside UNESCO, awards each year, in more than 110 countries,via its national and regional Jeunes Talents Pour les Femmes et la Science programs,nearly 250 endowments,which aim to provide specific support to doctoral and post-doctoral students, at a key moment in their careers.
Biological sciences - Engineering
Maëlle Bellec - Unlocking the mysteries of embryo development
Morgane Boulch - Developing immunotherapy to fight cancer
Jessika Consuegra - Identifying the positive effects of gut microbiota bacteria on their host
Claire Dessalles - Developing new therapies through the study of cell response to mechanical forces
Océane Dufies - Better detecting pathogenic bacteria to boost immunity
Anne-Gaëlle Goubet - Treating bladder cancer with immunotherapy
Dorien Maas - Developing new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis
Young Kyoung Park - Developing yeast via metabolic engineering for the production of microbial oils as alternatives to fossil fuels
Judith Pineau - Pinpointing the polarization dynamics of B lymphocytes in the immune response
Laura Poillet-Perez - Understanding the mechanisms involved in leukemia resistance to therapies
Lauren Reynolds - Understanding the developmental origins of psychiatric illnesses and improving their treatments
Marie Villares - Studying a bovine parasite to characterize new cancer treatments
Marion Rincel - Preventing the development of chronic diseases
Marjorie Whitfield - Defining the genetic causes of infertility in men for better treatment
Health Sciences - Medicine
Sophie Bavard - Explaining our decision-making with neuroscience
Gladys Gutiérrez Bugallo - Defining modes of virus transmission by mosquitoes in Cuba
Nour El Houda Mimouni - Developing treatments for polycystic ovary syndrome
Cécile Tran Kiem - Developing mathematical and statistical approaches to study the COVID-19 pandemic in France
Environmental and Earth Sciences
Felambinintsoa Cathucia Andriamihaja - Understanding the evolution and biology of a group of orchids with a view to conserving them
Lovely Euphrasie-Clotilde - Characterizing the impact of African sand mists on air quality in the Caribbean basin
Pauline Palmas - Assessing the threat of invasive alien species on island biodiversity
Physics and Chemistry
Anaïs Abramian - Modeling natural flows to prevent their behavior
Laëtitia Baringthon - Increasing the computational capabilities of computers
Eszter Dudás - Modeling the atmosphere of distant giant planets
Marina Katava - Thermodynamics as a tool for creating new data carriers
Daphné Lemasquerier - Modeling the dynamics of Jupiter's atmosphere using fluid mechanics experiments
Tepoerau Mai -Anticipating health risks linked to toxic microalgae in New Caledonia
Alice Marcotte - Studying the physics of nanofluid flows to design high-performance membranes
Laura Scalfi - Modeling molecular-scale metal-liquid interfaces for energy storage
Nour Skaf -Developing instrumental tools for observing exoplanets
Mathematics and Computer Science
Stella Bitchebe - Reducing the carbon footprint of data centers while improving their security
Gabrielle De Micheli - Securing information exchanges through cryptanalysis
Melpomeni Dimopoulou - Storing digital data in synthesized DNA
Lucile Laulin -Studying the elephant's random walk and its applications in statistical physics
Laura Monk - Describing random hyperbolic surfaces
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[1] Source UNESCO, 2017: http://uis.unesco.org/en/country/fr?theme=science-technology-and-innovation
[2] She Figures, 2018.
